The cast of Friends are to be reunited once again – for a movie version of the hit TV show, it emerged today. The six main stars have agreed to move onto the big screen following the success of the Sex And The City film at the box office. It means Jennifer Aniston, 40, Courteney Cox, 45, Lisa Kudrow, 46, Matt LeBlanc, 42, Matthew Perry, 40, and David Schwimmer, 42, will be back on the same set for the first time since the show ended in 2004. Studio bosses from Warner Brothers are prepared to pay a fortune to the stars, who were being paid six figures an episode by the tenth and final season of Friends, which pulled in 10million UK viewers. They have also drafted in the show’s creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman to write and produce the film, due in cinemas in the summer of 2011. James Michael Tyler, who played Central Perk coffee shop oddball Gunther, confirmed: ‘Friends: The Movie is definitely on. I still keep in touch with a lot of the cast and they say that they are really keen.’ A movie source told the News of the World: ‘The cast haven’t set the world alight since the show finished. But this film could relight some of their flagging careers in a big way. But everyone knew the story had to be right and well written. Getting the creators on board was a massive step forward for the project.’ The show did lose a lot of its shine in the last few seasons, but with the actors all in the forties it would be a real interest to see how their characters have developed.’ The film comes in the wake of the big screen version of Sex And The City which took an astonishing $408,921,925 at the box office. But, although the cast have always made no secret about a desire to do a film, some have cast doubts about its viability. Miss Kudrow has said: ‘It would be so fun to be with all those people again. But our show was not like Sex and the City – ours was multi-camera, in front of a live audience. It’s a completely different feel. You’d have to bring the tone down, and I don’t know how it would be. I’ll just stay open.’ Meanwhile actor Mr Tyler, 47, who is in London for the launch of a Central Perk themed coffee shop in Soho, is keen to reprise his role as Gunther on the big screen. He said: ‘The one thing I can tell you is that I am definitely on board to do the film. I really loved my time on the show and I am looking forward to meeting up with the old gang again. I just hope we can do justice to the show in a film.’

Dude, as much as I want to believe Gunther, I just won’t believe it until someone in a more official capacity confirms this rumor. As I said last year, these folks need to strike NOW while the iron is hot. If they wait too long, they won’t be able to make a movie that anyone will want to watch … they’re not getting any younger ;) I would DIE for a Friends movie and the actors would be able to make a KILLING paywise. They were making $1 million PER EPISODE when the TV show was on the air … can you imagine how much they could each command if they made a movie? While I’m hopeful this rumor will come true … I ain’t buyin’ it just yet.

For some reason, I’m really nervous about them doing a movie. This is opening up Friends to a bunch of new people and I’m afraid they’re not going to do the show justice and screw up the Friends legacy with this movie. But I’m sure Sex and the City fans felt the same way and they already have a SECOND movie in the works..

As exciting as this would be, I tend to agree with Lisa Kudrow’s sentiments. Sex and the City was a completely different style of show, so it was not such a drastic change in tone to take it from a HBO tv show, to a film. Friends, on the other hand, was a sitcom – which is soooo different in tone, feel, etc. I don’t know if this would really traslate well to the big screen, and if it’s worth it to tamper with the legacy they already left. The characters are too old now too, I don’t know what kind of storyline they could offer that wouldn’t make it seem like “Friends: The Gerriatric Reunion”.

Oh My God!!! I am probably the biggest friends fan out there, but I am a bit iffy about this. I really want to be excited about it for the chance to see how the friends ended up but I am scared they will mess it all up.. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. either way, I will be first in line counting down if it does end up with a movie!